Merry almost Christmas! It doesn't feel like the holiday season at all here, probably because it's about 38 degrees celcius in the shade. They have started playing Christmas music on Silozi radio though, which is pretty incongruous/hilarious. It's pretty weird to hear Frosty the Snowman while I'm sitting in my family's courtyard eating buhobe and fish with sweat pouring off my face. I'm getting kind of into Christmas though. I bought ingredients to make no bake cookies (you just boil most of the ingredients!). I have an oven but it's a gas stove and the ministry didn't bring gas when they dropped it off 2 months ago, and even though I've asked my school to call the ministry about it about 16 times since then, still no gas. Go figure. I got my host family Christmas gifts, even though I don't think exchanging gifts is part of Christmas culture here. I absolutely adore my host family though, so I'm excited to give them something. Today is my 2 year old host niece, Monde's birthday, so I came into town yesterday to bake her a birthday cake and when I get back to the village today we're going to have a little party for her. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures. She's absolutely adorable. At first, like many children here, she was terrified of me having never seen a mukuwa, white person, before, but now she calls me Memily "wangu" (My memily)and follows me around everywhere.
Village life has been a little boring for the past week or so. School ended last Wednesday so I've been spending a majority of my time in the village. So far I've been to a neighboring village to hand out Christmas presents to orphans with a group of volunteers from another organization, learned how to build a reed fence (which we put up around my pit latrine which is FINALLY in service now!! Yay!!), followed my host mom around for a day while she did all of her normal village activities, including visiting "her orphans," who are staying on a family's homestead, so she just makes sure they're being taken care of, collecting firewood (carrying it on my head makes me feel pretty badass I have to say)and what what. I've also been taking some time to just relax for the first time in four months, meaning watching lots of movies on my laptop and reading a lot. It's also far too hot in the afternoon to even sit in the shade without getting sunburned, so I've been spending a good chunk of time in my hut, which stays somehow cool during the day. It's rained a few times, which always cools things off considerably, but the last few days have been bright blue skies. Ugh. Terrible weather. Supposedly it does get cold here in May or June, but I'll believe it when I see it.
So that's life nowadays. Pretty exciting...not. I guess the action and adventure part of this story comes later on. Happy Holidays everyone!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thanksgiving in Namibia
Well, I had a whole post typed up on my flashdrive which currently isn't working at all, probably because it now has a million viruses after being plugged into a Namibia's laptop, so this will just be a short one. I had my first Namibian Thanksgiving yesterday. It was a little sad to be away from family on the holiday, and I definitely missed eating Thanksgiving comfort food, but the Caprivi kids had a celebration of our own with black bean burgers and sweet potato fries which were pretty delicious. Kaitlin even made an apple pie!
The village has been growing on me. I spent last weekend there so I got to spend time with my host family and neighbors and the kids. I love playing games with the kids in my village becasue they're so creative about how to entertain themselves. They don't have toys so they'll use long reeds of grass to make a jumprope, metal and soda cans to make metal cars that they push around, stones and the nuts from some sort of tree to make a game kind of like jax, where you have to throw the nut into the air and scoop the stones either into our out of a hole in the ground before you catch it. And of course they love to play cards, so I constantly have kids coming over to get me to teach them new card games, or to teach me some of their cards games.
I also learned how to do things that all women in the village have to do on a daily basis. On Saturday morning I went into the bush with my host mom and sister and our old lady neighbor who always calls me mulikani, which means friend in Silozi, to collect firewood. My stack was definitely a lot smaller than anyone else's but I did carry it on my head all the way back to the village. Which was probably only about a kilometer, but it feels far when you're carrying a heavy stack of firewood on your head!
On Sunday night I learned how to make nkoko, or buhobe, also known as pap or porridge: basically most Southern African cultures' staple food. Like most villagers my host family doesn't have a stove (well actually now they have my gas stove in their hut, but in typical fashion the ministry has yet to bring gas for it), so they do all their cooking over a fire. Let me tell you, cooking over a fire is hot and it's pretty easy to burn yourself -- most village women have burn scars on their hands and arms, from cooking I'm pretty sure -- and stirring nkoko is harder than it looks. And my old lady neighbor came over while I was making it and kept yelling at me in Silozi and grabbing my arm while I was stirring to say "Ona cwalo! Ona cwalo!" wich means, "like this! like this!" But I thought I was stirring it the way she tol me to...ehh I guess it's a learned art form. My host family said it tasted good though. It tasted the same as all nkoko to me: bland and kind of sandy.
Anyway, I'm actually kind of looking forward to being in the village after school ends. I was worried about filling up my days, but I think it will be nice to have a lot of time to wander around the village getting to know people and learning how to do things the village way. I'll also be in Kabbe for Christmas so I'll get to see what a traditional village Christmas is like. I hope there are fat cakes and not too many drunk people (Christmas is apparently a big drinking holiday here, just like most days of the year). I think I might try to bring a little Americanness to Christmas too by baking Christmas cookies. A week before Christmas is my 2 year old host niece, Monde's, birthday and since she might be my favorite person in Namibia since she's the most adorable baby I've ever seen I'm baking her a birthday cake.
So this is holiday time in Namibia. No Christmas trees, no holiday consumerisn, no winter snow, no turkey or stuffing or candy canes. It's just hot and sandy, and sometimes rainy now that rainy season is fast approaching. It's not bad though, just different, like most of the Peace Corps experience.
The village has been growing on me. I spent last weekend there so I got to spend time with my host family and neighbors and the kids. I love playing games with the kids in my village becasue they're so creative about how to entertain themselves. They don't have toys so they'll use long reeds of grass to make a jumprope, metal and soda cans to make metal cars that they push around, stones and the nuts from some sort of tree to make a game kind of like jax, where you have to throw the nut into the air and scoop the stones either into our out of a hole in the ground before you catch it. And of course they love to play cards, so I constantly have kids coming over to get me to teach them new card games, or to teach me some of their cards games.
I also learned how to do things that all women in the village have to do on a daily basis. On Saturday morning I went into the bush with my host mom and sister and our old lady neighbor who always calls me mulikani, which means friend in Silozi, to collect firewood. My stack was definitely a lot smaller than anyone else's but I did carry it on my head all the way back to the village. Which was probably only about a kilometer, but it feels far when you're carrying a heavy stack of firewood on your head!
On Sunday night I learned how to make nkoko, or buhobe, also known as pap or porridge: basically most Southern African cultures' staple food. Like most villagers my host family doesn't have a stove (well actually now they have my gas stove in their hut, but in typical fashion the ministry has yet to bring gas for it), so they do all their cooking over a fire. Let me tell you, cooking over a fire is hot and it's pretty easy to burn yourself -- most village women have burn scars on their hands and arms, from cooking I'm pretty sure -- and stirring nkoko is harder than it looks. And my old lady neighbor came over while I was making it and kept yelling at me in Silozi and grabbing my arm while I was stirring to say "Ona cwalo! Ona cwalo!" wich means, "like this! like this!" But I thought I was stirring it the way she tol me to...ehh I guess it's a learned art form. My host family said it tasted good though. It tasted the same as all nkoko to me: bland and kind of sandy.
Anyway, I'm actually kind of looking forward to being in the village after school ends. I was worried about filling up my days, but I think it will be nice to have a lot of time to wander around the village getting to know people and learning how to do things the village way. I'll also be in Kabbe for Christmas so I'll get to see what a traditional village Christmas is like. I hope there are fat cakes and not too many drunk people (Christmas is apparently a big drinking holiday here, just like most days of the year). I think I might try to bring a little Americanness to Christmas too by baking Christmas cookies. A week before Christmas is my 2 year old host niece, Monde's, birthday and since she might be my favorite person in Namibia since she's the most adorable baby I've ever seen I'm baking her a birthday cake.
So this is holiday time in Namibia. No Christmas trees, no holiday consumerisn, no winter snow, no turkey or stuffing or candy canes. It's just hot and sandy, and sometimes rainy now that rainy season is fast approaching. It's not bad though, just different, like most of the Peace Corps experience.
Friday, November 13, 2009
snakes, spiders and kittens
Hey all. So it's been exactly 4 weeks since swearing in, and roughly 4 weeks at site except for my little trip to Windhoek and for some reason this week I just hit a wall. I didn't come to town last weekend. I ended up going to Mubiza on friday night to stay with Sarah. We made some yummy pasta on Griffin's stove and watched the Office, and it would have been an awesome night except that Griffin's hut is some sort of sack spider den. Sack spiders are huge, gross, super fast, poisonous spiders and according to Sarah's host dad if you get bit by one your arm will turn back and you'll eventually die. Great. Another creature in the bush that wants to kill us. Luckily Griffin's cat, Romanus, was pretty good at killing and eating the spiders but there were a few that managed to escape Romanus which resulted in Sarah and me jumping from Griffin's bed to the cot in his sitting room shrieking. And I'm not afraid of spiders. I have about 30 wall spiders chilling in my hut right now. But man, I'm telling you, those things are scary.
Oh, and to back it up a bit, last week I came home from school for tea break,which is when I eat breakfast with my family. I was sitting in my host mom's hut, finishing my bread and peanut butter (my favorite meal of the day, because it does not involve any variation of porridge), when my host mom called me outside. She put her arm around me and pointed to the thatch in my hut and said in the kind of voice you use when you have to tell someone something and you don't want them to freak out and vomit on you because what you have to say is terrifying, "Look over there." I looked up and sure enough sticking its head out of the thatch was a snake. Now, in America, I'm not afraid of snakes. They really don't bother me. I used to enjoy catching garter snakes and keeping them as pets when I was little. But in Caprivi snakes are a whole different story. Essentially villagers will tell you that every kind of snake is poisonous and going to kill you in 3 seconds flat. And that's what I've been hearing since I got to Namibia. So this has instilled a pretty intense fear of snakes, and particularly of snakes getting into my hut. Which the other volunteers told me is very rare and probably not going to happen. But there was a snake, just hanging out in the roof of my hut. My host mom ran and got two women who live in the huts next to mine and they came with long sticks and knocked it out of the roof, then one of the women beat it with the stick until it was dead. I have no idea what kind of snake it was. it was thin and green, and possibly a green mamba although those are actually pretty rare (black mambas, the way more dangerous kind, are more common). The day before a cobra tried to get into the grade 3 classroom and they killed it. So there we have it. Two snake sitings and a bombardment of sack spiders, all in the same week.
But fortunately the reason I was going to Mubiza in the first place, in addition to see Sarah, was to get my kitten! Griffin's spider killing cat had kittens a few weeks ago, so Griffin gave me one to keep snakes and spiders out of my house. And also just because kittens are darn cute. So now I have a little kitty to guard my house. She's black and white and her name is Yebo.
So aside from poisonous animals trying to kill me and cute little kittens I've just been going to school every day and trying to get to know the teachers and learners. I don't know, I think this week I just a hit a slump. It's been 3 months of living with host families and I'm definitely ready for some independence. I'm also way tired of the food and so ready to be able to cook for myself. But only 6 weeks until reconnect and then I get to move into my own hut! My mansion as my counterpart jokingly refers to it. But after living in a windowless 8 by 8 foot cave it will definitely feel like a mansion.
Anyway, I'll continue to keep you updated on snakes and spiders and what not!
Oh, and to back it up a bit, last week I came home from school for tea break,which is when I eat breakfast with my family. I was sitting in my host mom's hut, finishing my bread and peanut butter (my favorite meal of the day, because it does not involve any variation of porridge), when my host mom called me outside. She put her arm around me and pointed to the thatch in my hut and said in the kind of voice you use when you have to tell someone something and you don't want them to freak out and vomit on you because what you have to say is terrifying, "Look over there." I looked up and sure enough sticking its head out of the thatch was a snake. Now, in America, I'm not afraid of snakes. They really don't bother me. I used to enjoy catching garter snakes and keeping them as pets when I was little. But in Caprivi snakes are a whole different story. Essentially villagers will tell you that every kind of snake is poisonous and going to kill you in 3 seconds flat. And that's what I've been hearing since I got to Namibia. So this has instilled a pretty intense fear of snakes, and particularly of snakes getting into my hut. Which the other volunteers told me is very rare and probably not going to happen. But there was a snake, just hanging out in the roof of my hut. My host mom ran and got two women who live in the huts next to mine and they came with long sticks and knocked it out of the roof, then one of the women beat it with the stick until it was dead. I have no idea what kind of snake it was. it was thin and green, and possibly a green mamba although those are actually pretty rare (black mambas, the way more dangerous kind, are more common). The day before a cobra tried to get into the grade 3 classroom and they killed it. So there we have it. Two snake sitings and a bombardment of sack spiders, all in the same week.
But fortunately the reason I was going to Mubiza in the first place, in addition to see Sarah, was to get my kitten! Griffin's spider killing cat had kittens a few weeks ago, so Griffin gave me one to keep snakes and spiders out of my house. And also just because kittens are darn cute. So now I have a little kitty to guard my house. She's black and white and her name is Yebo.
So aside from poisonous animals trying to kill me and cute little kittens I've just been going to school every day and trying to get to know the teachers and learners. I don't know, I think this week I just a hit a slump. It's been 3 months of living with host families and I'm definitely ready for some independence. I'm also way tired of the food and so ready to be able to cook for myself. But only 6 weeks until reconnect and then I get to move into my own hut! My mansion as my counterpart jokingly refers to it. But after living in a windowless 8 by 8 foot cave it will definitely feel like a mansion.
Anyway, I'll continue to keep you updated on snakes and spiders and what not!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Kabbe Shmabbe
More pictures! Enjoy!
On the way to site we made a detour to Botswana. Huh?
My host family in Kabbe
This is what Kabbe looks like pretty much. Just imagine more huts and lots of sand.
Group 30 Silozi group plus Kaitlin
Group 30 at swearing in!
Well, it’s been 2 weeks since swearing in and this should be my second week at site, but I had to come down to Windhoek this week to get a medical issue looked at. It turns out to most likely be nothing more serious than a strange reaction to my malaria pills, so I should be good to go in no time! In the mean time I’m hanging out in Windhoek, enjoying some yummy food, going to Super Spar (aka mecca) daily, and just wandering around the city. Hopefully I’ll be back at site soon, but Clara, the Peace Corps Medical Officer, likes to keep volunteers who come down here for medical stuff for a while, just to make sure there won’t be any problems when we get to site. I really didn’t want to have to come down here in the first place, because I’m still getting used to my site and I’m missing seeing all the Caprivi volunteers in Katima this weekend for Halloween, but I do have to admit that it’s nice having a toilet and shower.
Which brings me to my first week and a half at site. It’s been interesting. Let’s start with swearing in. It was happy and sad to become an official PCV. It was great to finally be done with training and be able to get to our sites to start doing what we came here to do, but it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone! I made some really great friends during training and now I won’t see them until January, when we all get together for reconnect. At least we still have smsing and the random phone call to get us through the months. Other than that swearing in went well. Sarah and I read the farewell speech for Silozi, and we were both really nervous but I think we did well! After the ceremony people started leaving with their supervisors for their sites immediately. Those of us whose sites are too far to get to in an afternoon hung around the center, saying goodbye to everyone, then went out for one last ice cream at spar.
The next morning I had all my stuff packed up and ready to go at 5:30 in the morning when the Peace Corps combi came to pick us up to drop us off at the center, where we would load our stuff into a ministry bakkie (pickup truck), then we would get into a sedan and Steven, Andrew’s principal, would drive us and a teacher from my school who came down to get us, up to Katima. So that morning I said goodbye to my host family in Okahandja with the promise that we would meet up in Katima in December when they come for holiday, and set off. However, when we got to the center Steven announced that the ministry bakkie wasn’t coming that day, and could only get our stuff the next day, so we had to leave almost everything except for a few essential items and valuables in OKahandja. Ugh, that was not okay. I was super nervous about leaving my stuff, figuring I would never see it again, but luckily it arrived the next Monday. So all worked out in the end.
We spent the night in Katima and the next day Steven drove us to our sites, with a detour to Ngoma, the border town to Botswana, about 15 K from Kabbe (yup! I’m that close to Botswana). Actually, we even made a little jaunt into Botswana, just by crossing the bridge separating Botswana and Namibia! So I have now officially been to 4 Southern African countries. Hopefully next time I’ll get a little farther in though…
Then Steven dropped Andrew in Lusese and me in Kabbe. The first thing I noticed as we pulled up in front of my host families hut was the remarkably absence of a pit latrine. I was promised multiple times during site visit and the last 4 weeks of training by my principal and the Peace Corps that my pit latrine would definitely definitely definitely be done by the time I got there for site. But, this is Caprivi. As of yet it still isn’t done, which has made life rather awkward and uncomfortable for the last 2 weeks, as you can probably imagine.
So I spent the first day catching up with my host family, walking around the outer edges of Kabbe in my shitenge greeting people with my host mom. The next day, Monday, I went to school expecting to observe classes and just become reacquainted with my surroundings. However, when I showed up I was informed that the 8th and 9th grade math teacher was in Windhoek grading exams, and that I should take over his classes for the week. Ummm, last I checked I’m an English teacher, and I barely remember how to do 8th grade math. And his class happened to be 1st period. So it was pretty awkward since I clearly was flustered and had no idea what I was doing, but afterwards I spoke to my principal about how I’m not a math teacher and I don’t appreciate being thrust into classes without warning. So after that I spent the week working with the English teacher for grades 5 to 7, which suited my abilities much better. By the end of the week I felt comfortable teaching a few classes, and I’m starting to really love my learners. They are absolutely adorable. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my school when I get back to site.
My only big surprise that week came the first day of school when I got back to my room and opened my door only to find that someone’s rooster had gotten inside my hut. My door, which was also supposed to be replaced before I got there, has huge gaps in it, and a rooster had just waltzed its way into the place. Because of my slightly irrational fear of birds and hatred of chickens I freaked out a little, and ran screaming into my host mom’s house to ask for help. She managed to get it out for me, but not before it had a chance to poop everywhere, including some of the only clothes I had managed to bring from Okahandja. Since that incident I’ve become very suspicious of the chickens that hang around my host family’s lapa, and don’t feel as guilty about eating them anymore.
After that the week was less exciting. I thought village life would be boring and I would have nothing to do most of the time but I’ve found that I’ve managed to fill up my days pretty completely, between school, after school lesson planning and activities, spending time with my host family and teaching all the kids in the village how to play uno (they love it, even though they pretty much made up their own rules and now I don’t really know how to play their version).
So, even though village life is definitely going to take getting used to it’s not that bad. The only things I really miss are being able to cook for myself (and eat cheese! Oh I miss cheese) and showers and indoor toilets, and having any privacy. In the village everyone knows what I’m doing every minute of the day. When I have my own house with a courtyard I think I’ll have a little more privacy.
Well, that’s pretty much it so far. I miss home and 2 years is starting to seem like a really long time, but hopefully by January I’ll be adjusted to my site and it will feel a little more like home away from home. And for those who want to experience life in a real African village visitors are always welcome!
On the way to site we made a detour to Botswana. Huh?
My host family in Kabbe
This is what Kabbe looks like pretty much. Just imagine more huts and lots of sand.
Group 30 Silozi group plus Kaitlin
Group 30 at swearing in!
Well, it’s been 2 weeks since swearing in and this should be my second week at site, but I had to come down to Windhoek this week to get a medical issue looked at. It turns out to most likely be nothing more serious than a strange reaction to my malaria pills, so I should be good to go in no time! In the mean time I’m hanging out in Windhoek, enjoying some yummy food, going to Super Spar (aka mecca) daily, and just wandering around the city. Hopefully I’ll be back at site soon, but Clara, the Peace Corps Medical Officer, likes to keep volunteers who come down here for medical stuff for a while, just to make sure there won’t be any problems when we get to site. I really didn’t want to have to come down here in the first place, because I’m still getting used to my site and I’m missing seeing all the Caprivi volunteers in Katima this weekend for Halloween, but I do have to admit that it’s nice having a toilet and shower.
Which brings me to my first week and a half at site. It’s been interesting. Let’s start with swearing in. It was happy and sad to become an official PCV. It was great to finally be done with training and be able to get to our sites to start doing what we came here to do, but it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone! I made some really great friends during training and now I won’t see them until January, when we all get together for reconnect. At least we still have smsing and the random phone call to get us through the months. Other than that swearing in went well. Sarah and I read the farewell speech for Silozi, and we were both really nervous but I think we did well! After the ceremony people started leaving with their supervisors for their sites immediately. Those of us whose sites are too far to get to in an afternoon hung around the center, saying goodbye to everyone, then went out for one last ice cream at spar.
The next morning I had all my stuff packed up and ready to go at 5:30 in the morning when the Peace Corps combi came to pick us up to drop us off at the center, where we would load our stuff into a ministry bakkie (pickup truck), then we would get into a sedan and Steven, Andrew’s principal, would drive us and a teacher from my school who came down to get us, up to Katima. So that morning I said goodbye to my host family in Okahandja with the promise that we would meet up in Katima in December when they come for holiday, and set off. However, when we got to the center Steven announced that the ministry bakkie wasn’t coming that day, and could only get our stuff the next day, so we had to leave almost everything except for a few essential items and valuables in OKahandja. Ugh, that was not okay. I was super nervous about leaving my stuff, figuring I would never see it again, but luckily it arrived the next Monday. So all worked out in the end.
We spent the night in Katima and the next day Steven drove us to our sites, with a detour to Ngoma, the border town to Botswana, about 15 K from Kabbe (yup! I’m that close to Botswana). Actually, we even made a little jaunt into Botswana, just by crossing the bridge separating Botswana and Namibia! So I have now officially been to 4 Southern African countries. Hopefully next time I’ll get a little farther in though…
Then Steven dropped Andrew in Lusese and me in Kabbe. The first thing I noticed as we pulled up in front of my host families hut was the remarkably absence of a pit latrine. I was promised multiple times during site visit and the last 4 weeks of training by my principal and the Peace Corps that my pit latrine would definitely definitely definitely be done by the time I got there for site. But, this is Caprivi. As of yet it still isn’t done, which has made life rather awkward and uncomfortable for the last 2 weeks, as you can probably imagine.
So I spent the first day catching up with my host family, walking around the outer edges of Kabbe in my shitenge greeting people with my host mom. The next day, Monday, I went to school expecting to observe classes and just become reacquainted with my surroundings. However, when I showed up I was informed that the 8th and 9th grade math teacher was in Windhoek grading exams, and that I should take over his classes for the week. Ummm, last I checked I’m an English teacher, and I barely remember how to do 8th grade math. And his class happened to be 1st period. So it was pretty awkward since I clearly was flustered and had no idea what I was doing, but afterwards I spoke to my principal about how I’m not a math teacher and I don’t appreciate being thrust into classes without warning. So after that I spent the week working with the English teacher for grades 5 to 7, which suited my abilities much better. By the end of the week I felt comfortable teaching a few classes, and I’m starting to really love my learners. They are absolutely adorable. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my school when I get back to site.
My only big surprise that week came the first day of school when I got back to my room and opened my door only to find that someone’s rooster had gotten inside my hut. My door, which was also supposed to be replaced before I got there, has huge gaps in it, and a rooster had just waltzed its way into the place. Because of my slightly irrational fear of birds and hatred of chickens I freaked out a little, and ran screaming into my host mom’s house to ask for help. She managed to get it out for me, but not before it had a chance to poop everywhere, including some of the only clothes I had managed to bring from Okahandja. Since that incident I’ve become very suspicious of the chickens that hang around my host family’s lapa, and don’t feel as guilty about eating them anymore.
After that the week was less exciting. I thought village life would be boring and I would have nothing to do most of the time but I’ve found that I’ve managed to fill up my days pretty completely, between school, after school lesson planning and activities, spending time with my host family and teaching all the kids in the village how to play uno (they love it, even though they pretty much made up their own rules and now I don’t really know how to play their version).
So, even though village life is definitely going to take getting used to it’s not that bad. The only things I really miss are being able to cook for myself (and eat cheese! Oh I miss cheese) and showers and indoor toilets, and having any privacy. In the village everyone knows what I’m doing every minute of the day. When I have my own house with a courtyard I think I’ll have a little more privacy.
Well, that’s pretty much it so far. I miss home and 2 years is starting to seem like a really long time, but hopefully by January I’ll be adjusted to my site and it will feel a little more like home away from home. And for those who want to experience life in a real African village visitors are always welcome!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Okahandja to Kabbe to Windhoek...
Pictures! My host sister and baby in our lapa (courtyard)
Ok so I had a post typed up about my first week and a half at site but here in the volunteer lounge in Windhoek I can't get it to open with this version of word. So I'll try to come back and download it. But for now I'll just say this: Week 1 at site was hard. My site is definitely difficult. I don't have a pit latrine, my permanent house isn't ready, for now I live in a tiny hut with no windows and lots of spiders on the walls, and when its windy thatch blows down through my mosquito net and my bed gets covered in dirt. So I've had to get used to carrying water, having chickens break into my hut, bucket bathing and doing laundry by hand. Village life isn't easy, but then again, no one goes into Peace Corps thinking it's going to be easy! Although in some ways it's been more difficult than I thought. I think I'm really going to like Kabbe, once I get adjusted and have a place in the village.
And at home I rarely if every get sick, but my first wednesday at site I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't breathe, and since then I've had chest pains every day, and experienced really bad pains in my chest every time I try to swallow food or water. Which brings me to where I am now: sittin in the PC lounge in Windhoek. Clara, the Peace Corps Medical Officer wanted me to come down to check everything out and make sure it's nothing serious. It turns out to most likely be an adverse reaction to my malaria pills. Which is a relief, and soon I'll be back in Kabbe. For now I don't mind having a toilet and shower though!
So I'll write a more detailed post next time, with more pictures of my village!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Hold the mayo
Only one day of training left! On Friday we swear in as volunteers and then off we go to our permanent sites in all corners of Namibia. The Caprivi kids are leaving on Saturday, overnighting in Rundu and then heading to our villages on Sunday. Phewww.
Reflecting back on training, I wanted to write a post about something very important to me and I believe most other members of my training group. This is an issue very near and dear to my heart. Probably a main passion my in life, a source of joy and sorrow, and one of exceeding importance in navigating the delicate contours of adapting to a foreign culture: food.
Yes, food is a cultural touchstone that can make or break your experience in a foreign country. In many cases it defines the culture: tacos, lo mein, tiramisu, all conjure different images of certain locales. I know that many of you have probably already wondered, and I’m sure I’ll be asked eventually, so what is the food in Namibia like?
So for your benefit I’ve prepared a little description of Nam cuisine, although defining the food in Namibia in a holistic sense is a little tough, since Namibia as a whole is made up of several different ethnic groups, each with its own idea of what constitutes a good meal. Hereros, for example, love meat. A traditional Herero meal could be goat with porridge with sour milk. Yum. Oshiwambos eat Mopani worms, which are apparently big worms that they fry in oil to make crispy. When undercooked they have a bitter, squishy taste. I have yet to try. Every ethnic group eats porridge, which is boiled maize meal: kind of like very bland grits or polenta. The traditional way to eat porridge is to ball it up in your right hand and dip it into whatever meat, vegetable and sauce you happen to be eating it with. Every cultural group’s porridge is a little different. Oshiwambo and Kavango porridge is sandier, and has a softer consistency, so they don’t chew it, just swallow it whole.
Caprivians are fortunate enough to live next to the Zambezi river so they eat lots of fish, and it’s a fertile enough region to grow vegetables, particularly one called the 5 year vegetable, which is a type of bitter green, like spinach. In the village, for lunch and dinner, we usually eat porridge with fresh river fish, and either a sauce of onions and tomatoes or 5 year vegetable.
What I’ve given you so far is solely a description of traditional food. In my village people mostly stick to the traditional because they still cook in pots over the fire, and supplies are much less available than in towns where there are always at least one or two supermarkets (Spar in Okahandja has turned into my favorite place in the world). But the thing about Namibia is that as a result of colonization and “development” the food culture has changed over the years. And while families in towns will still prepare a traditional meal one or two days a week, the food as a whole has evolved to a strange mix of African, German and mayonnaise.
Let me explain. Somewhere along the line, something very strange happened to food in Namibia. And what we’ve ended up with is a love for “tomato sauce” (Nam ketchup), mayonnaise, and processed powdered soup packets that knows no bounds. This is a typical dinner at my house: Rice, pasta or porridge, chicken or another type of meat (lately oryx since I walked into my kitchen one day 2 weeks ago only to find my host mother hacking away at a giant oryx leg), soup packet, on top of which they will dump mayonnaise and tomato sauce. Sometimes we have pasta with mayonnaise, like pasta salad but warm, with soup packet. And tomato sauce. Sometimes we have pasta with mayonnaise and rice (why?). And sometimes to spice it up we’ll have salad: lettuce, drenched in a dressing of mayonnaise, sugar and milk. Which is also the same dressing recipe used for spaghetti with mayonnaise, carrot salad and potato salad. I’m not sure exactly why it makes sense to make spaghetti with mayonnaise (+sugar and milk, just in case you were worried about being able to button your pants at some point after training), cut up a hard boiled egg and put some peas and carrots in it, serve it warm, and then to top it off pour soup over it, but that’s how we do in Namibia. Oh, and the other amazing thing about mayonnaise in Namibia: it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. We’re not sure how this works, since it still says clearly on the label to refrigerate after opening, but in every household the mayo is kept in the cupboard. Oh, and for some reason, the only food on which mayonnaise isn’t appropriate is sandwiches: butter goes on every type of sandwich. (side note: they also put butter on peanut butter sandwiches, due to some kind of miscommunication somewhere where peanut butter is the peanut part, and then…well, I think you get it).
So, to finish it off, here’s a random sample of food we volunteers have been given by our families:
Macaroni salad with fruit cocktail
Biltong (Nam beef jerkey) with gravy and potatoes
Cold baked beans with sliced banana (that was my mom – the next day we had it again with cooked carrots, and she informed me that she just loves this kind of “salad”)
Wart hog
Oryx
Goat brain
So there it is. I could go on and on about food but this is just a taste of local cuisine. Oh Namibia, how I love thee. But after my two years here I hope to never see a jar of mayonnaise again.
Reflecting back on training, I wanted to write a post about something very important to me and I believe most other members of my training group. This is an issue very near and dear to my heart. Probably a main passion my in life, a source of joy and sorrow, and one of exceeding importance in navigating the delicate contours of adapting to a foreign culture: food.
Yes, food is a cultural touchstone that can make or break your experience in a foreign country. In many cases it defines the culture: tacos, lo mein, tiramisu, all conjure different images of certain locales. I know that many of you have probably already wondered, and I’m sure I’ll be asked eventually, so what is the food in Namibia like?
So for your benefit I’ve prepared a little description of Nam cuisine, although defining the food in Namibia in a holistic sense is a little tough, since Namibia as a whole is made up of several different ethnic groups, each with its own idea of what constitutes a good meal. Hereros, for example, love meat. A traditional Herero meal could be goat with porridge with sour milk. Yum. Oshiwambos eat Mopani worms, which are apparently big worms that they fry in oil to make crispy. When undercooked they have a bitter, squishy taste. I have yet to try. Every ethnic group eats porridge, which is boiled maize meal: kind of like very bland grits or polenta. The traditional way to eat porridge is to ball it up in your right hand and dip it into whatever meat, vegetable and sauce you happen to be eating it with. Every cultural group’s porridge is a little different. Oshiwambo and Kavango porridge is sandier, and has a softer consistency, so they don’t chew it, just swallow it whole.
Caprivians are fortunate enough to live next to the Zambezi river so they eat lots of fish, and it’s a fertile enough region to grow vegetables, particularly one called the 5 year vegetable, which is a type of bitter green, like spinach. In the village, for lunch and dinner, we usually eat porridge with fresh river fish, and either a sauce of onions and tomatoes or 5 year vegetable.
What I’ve given you so far is solely a description of traditional food. In my village people mostly stick to the traditional because they still cook in pots over the fire, and supplies are much less available than in towns where there are always at least one or two supermarkets (Spar in Okahandja has turned into my favorite place in the world). But the thing about Namibia is that as a result of colonization and “development” the food culture has changed over the years. And while families in towns will still prepare a traditional meal one or two days a week, the food as a whole has evolved to a strange mix of African, German and mayonnaise.
Let me explain. Somewhere along the line, something very strange happened to food in Namibia. And what we’ve ended up with is a love for “tomato sauce” (Nam ketchup), mayonnaise, and processed powdered soup packets that knows no bounds. This is a typical dinner at my house: Rice, pasta or porridge, chicken or another type of meat (lately oryx since I walked into my kitchen one day 2 weeks ago only to find my host mother hacking away at a giant oryx leg), soup packet, on top of which they will dump mayonnaise and tomato sauce. Sometimes we have pasta with mayonnaise, like pasta salad but warm, with soup packet. And tomato sauce. Sometimes we have pasta with mayonnaise and rice (why?). And sometimes to spice it up we’ll have salad: lettuce, drenched in a dressing of mayonnaise, sugar and milk. Which is also the same dressing recipe used for spaghetti with mayonnaise, carrot salad and potato salad. I’m not sure exactly why it makes sense to make spaghetti with mayonnaise (+sugar and milk, just in case you were worried about being able to button your pants at some point after training), cut up a hard boiled egg and put some peas and carrots in it, serve it warm, and then to top it off pour soup over it, but that’s how we do in Namibia. Oh, and the other amazing thing about mayonnaise in Namibia: it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. We’re not sure how this works, since it still says clearly on the label to refrigerate after opening, but in every household the mayo is kept in the cupboard. Oh, and for some reason, the only food on which mayonnaise isn’t appropriate is sandwiches: butter goes on every type of sandwich. (side note: they also put butter on peanut butter sandwiches, due to some kind of miscommunication somewhere where peanut butter is the peanut part, and then…well, I think you get it).
So, to finish it off, here’s a random sample of food we volunteers have been given by our families:
Macaroni salad with fruit cocktail
Biltong (Nam beef jerkey) with gravy and potatoes
Cold baked beans with sliced banana (that was my mom – the next day we had it again with cooked carrots, and she informed me that she just loves this kind of “salad”)
Wart hog
Oryx
Goat brain
So there it is. I could go on and on about food but this is just a taste of local cuisine. Oh Namibia, how I love thee. But after my two years here I hope to never see a jar of mayonnaise again.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Peace Corps is Namgood
I wrote this post a few days ago but haven’t been able to wake up at 1 for internet before now. So it’s a little outdated but still good, don’t worry.
Hello again! Now that I have internet I can post blogs all the time…so exciting! Don’t get too used to it though because I’m not sure what my internet will be like at site since Kabbe doesn’t get the best cell reception. I kind of have to stand in one corner of my hut to hear anything, which is kind of creepy because I don’t like to stand in my hut in the dark just in case there might be lizards and snakes and things running around my feet. Eek.
Well I’ve been back from site visit for 2 weeks and now I have less than 2 weeks until I leave for my permanent site, which is insanity. On the one hand I’m ready for training to be over because I am starting to get really tired of the sessions. Every morning we have 4 hours of language training which is extremely draining. Then after lunch we usually have some kind of cross cultural or technical session, which are usually terrible because it’s 90 degrees, the presentations are given by Namibians who usually speak quickly and mumble, and they’re on subjects like the history of education in Namibia. It’s a struggle to stay awake. I think I’m going to be really sad when training is over though because I’m really going to miss the other PCVs in my group. I love the volunteers in Caprivi, so I’ll have awesome people to hang out with on weekends, but I’m really going to miss the folks from group 30 who are going to be all over the country and nowhere close to me. Time is really going by fast though! I’ve been in Namibia for 6 weeks already. Only 2 years to go…
For the past 2 Saturdays we haven’t had any training sessions so we decided to free hike down to Windhoek to do a little shopping and eat some great food. We found the best Indian restaurant in Windhoek last week which I am definitely hitting up every time I’m in town, and then we went to the movies and saw Up. I’m going to miss going to the movies once I get to site…it’s one of my absolute favorite things to do. Getting back to Okahandja last week was quite an adventure. We didn’t want to spend money on a taxi, being poor volunteers who just spent about 10 days worth of PC allowance on Indian food and a movie, so we decided to free hike back to Okahandja. We left the mall at around 5 and started to walk to the hike point. We weren’t really sure where we were going so we followed signs to the B1 in Okahandja. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and then realized that we were going the wrong way. Whoops. So we doubled back and walked and walked and walked some more, and realized we were cutting it pretty close by getting to the hike point so late. So we flagged down a car that dropped us off at the hike point and started attempting to wave cars down. The only ones that stopped weren’t going to Okahandja or were taxis that wouldn’t leave when we told them we didn’t want to pay for a ride (In weird PCV Nam talk: “But we are only volunteers, and we are not having money.”) Finally we started to get a little worried so we texted Raymond, our super dreamy safety and security officer and secret boyfriend of every female PCV in Namibia, for the number for a cab. I guess he got kind of worried that we were in Windhoek so close to nightfall because he asked where we were and said he was coming to find us. Well, the PC policy on free-hiking is “don’t do it” so we definitely didn’t want Raymond to know we were at the free hike spot so we started frantically walking to a spot that wasn’t the hike point, even though we were basically busted because there’s nothing in that part of Windhoek except the highway. As we started walking an open back bakkie (pick up truck) pulled over with 2 very nice drivers who let all 7 of us pile into the back. Well, if free hiking doesn’t exactly jibe with PC policy, riding in an open bakkie is also one of those “don’t do it” rules. We texted Raymond to tell him we “found a taxi” and just imagined what he would do if he rolled up and saw us pulling away in this open bakkie. He would break up with us for sure. PC policy or not it was a great ride and completed an awesome day.
Today the Peace Corps combi was driving down to Windhoek to drop off 2 current volunteers who are leaving in December for their COS (close of service) medical interviews, so we decided to take a ride with them and then free hike back, for no other reason than that we were bored in Okahandja and wanted some more food that’s good good and not just “Namgood.” Namgood is phrase used to describe food that would be mediocre at best in our normal lives in America, but here in Namibia we chow down with gusto. For example, today I stopped at Hungry Lion, a fast food restaurant, to get some soft serve ice cream. A small ice cream cone was N$2.40, so about 30 US cents. And even though it was supposed to be vanilla but it tasted like banana, and it had a texture that was not really akin to ice cream, it was one awesome ice cream cone: Namgood. We have all found that our standards have definitely been lowered. Food like processed cheese slices that we would never eat in the states are now beloved PCV staples, and volunteers even admit to breaking apart chicken bones to suck out the marrow like our Namibian host families. To be honest I think we would eat anything that was put in front of us. And Namgood doesn’t only apply to food. Namibian TV also falls into the Namgood category. Most volunteers have become obsessed Namibian soapies. I don’t even notice the weird dubbing of “Lorenzo’s wife,” and the acting seems really good now. Namgood.
So today we got some Italian food that was even American good. Like I said before as PCVs we eat anything that isn’t nailed down. I eat so much more here than I do in the states, which is ironic because most people feel sorry for you when you go into the Peace Corps and assume you’re going to come back to America emaciated. Not so. But, once I get to my village I’ll be eating nothing but buhobe and fish, which I’m sure I’ll grow to love in a Namgood way, but I won’t have junk food readily available. So I figure I might as well enjoy the ice cream and candy bars now… Oh and speaking of food I made chocolate chip cookies for my host family and they loved loved loved them. So if you ever find yourself baking for a Namibian definitely go for the chocolate chip cookies.
Hello again! Now that I have internet I can post blogs all the time…so exciting! Don’t get too used to it though because I’m not sure what my internet will be like at site since Kabbe doesn’t get the best cell reception. I kind of have to stand in one corner of my hut to hear anything, which is kind of creepy because I don’t like to stand in my hut in the dark just in case there might be lizards and snakes and things running around my feet. Eek.
Well I’ve been back from site visit for 2 weeks and now I have less than 2 weeks until I leave for my permanent site, which is insanity. On the one hand I’m ready for training to be over because I am starting to get really tired of the sessions. Every morning we have 4 hours of language training which is extremely draining. Then after lunch we usually have some kind of cross cultural or technical session, which are usually terrible because it’s 90 degrees, the presentations are given by Namibians who usually speak quickly and mumble, and they’re on subjects like the history of education in Namibia. It’s a struggle to stay awake. I think I’m going to be really sad when training is over though because I’m really going to miss the other PCVs in my group. I love the volunteers in Caprivi, so I’ll have awesome people to hang out with on weekends, but I’m really going to miss the folks from group 30 who are going to be all over the country and nowhere close to me. Time is really going by fast though! I’ve been in Namibia for 6 weeks already. Only 2 years to go…
For the past 2 Saturdays we haven’t had any training sessions so we decided to free hike down to Windhoek to do a little shopping and eat some great food. We found the best Indian restaurant in Windhoek last week which I am definitely hitting up every time I’m in town, and then we went to the movies and saw Up. I’m going to miss going to the movies once I get to site…it’s one of my absolute favorite things to do. Getting back to Okahandja last week was quite an adventure. We didn’t want to spend money on a taxi, being poor volunteers who just spent about 10 days worth of PC allowance on Indian food and a movie, so we decided to free hike back to Okahandja. We left the mall at around 5 and started to walk to the hike point. We weren’t really sure where we were going so we followed signs to the B1 in Okahandja. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and then realized that we were going the wrong way. Whoops. So we doubled back and walked and walked and walked some more, and realized we were cutting it pretty close by getting to the hike point so late. So we flagged down a car that dropped us off at the hike point and started attempting to wave cars down. The only ones that stopped weren’t going to Okahandja or were taxis that wouldn’t leave when we told them we didn’t want to pay for a ride (In weird PCV Nam talk: “But we are only volunteers, and we are not having money.”) Finally we started to get a little worried so we texted Raymond, our super dreamy safety and security officer and secret boyfriend of every female PCV in Namibia, for the number for a cab. I guess he got kind of worried that we were in Windhoek so close to nightfall because he asked where we were and said he was coming to find us. Well, the PC policy on free-hiking is “don’t do it” so we definitely didn’t want Raymond to know we were at the free hike spot so we started frantically walking to a spot that wasn’t the hike point, even though we were basically busted because there’s nothing in that part of Windhoek except the highway. As we started walking an open back bakkie (pick up truck) pulled over with 2 very nice drivers who let all 7 of us pile into the back. Well, if free hiking doesn’t exactly jibe with PC policy, riding in an open bakkie is also one of those “don’t do it” rules. We texted Raymond to tell him we “found a taxi” and just imagined what he would do if he rolled up and saw us pulling away in this open bakkie. He would break up with us for sure. PC policy or not it was a great ride and completed an awesome day.
Today the Peace Corps combi was driving down to Windhoek to drop off 2 current volunteers who are leaving in December for their COS (close of service) medical interviews, so we decided to take a ride with them and then free hike back, for no other reason than that we were bored in Okahandja and wanted some more food that’s good good and not just “Namgood.” Namgood is phrase used to describe food that would be mediocre at best in our normal lives in America, but here in Namibia we chow down with gusto. For example, today I stopped at Hungry Lion, a fast food restaurant, to get some soft serve ice cream. A small ice cream cone was N$2.40, so about 30 US cents. And even though it was supposed to be vanilla but it tasted like banana, and it had a texture that was not really akin to ice cream, it was one awesome ice cream cone: Namgood. We have all found that our standards have definitely been lowered. Food like processed cheese slices that we would never eat in the states are now beloved PCV staples, and volunteers even admit to breaking apart chicken bones to suck out the marrow like our Namibian host families. To be honest I think we would eat anything that was put in front of us. And Namgood doesn’t only apply to food. Namibian TV also falls into the Namgood category. Most volunteers have become obsessed Namibian soapies. I don’t even notice the weird dubbing of “Lorenzo’s wife,” and the acting seems really good now. Namgood.
So today we got some Italian food that was even American good. Like I said before as PCVs we eat anything that isn’t nailed down. I eat so much more here than I do in the states, which is ironic because most people feel sorry for you when you go into the Peace Corps and assume you’re going to come back to America emaciated. Not so. But, once I get to my village I’ll be eating nothing but buhobe and fish, which I’m sure I’ll grow to love in a Namgood way, but I won’t have junk food readily available. So I figure I might as well enjoy the ice cream and candy bars now… Oh and speaking of food I made chocolate chip cookies for my host family and they loved loved loved them. So if you ever find yourself baking for a Namibian definitely go for the chocolate chip cookies.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Permanent Site Visit!
Ok so It’s taken me forever to post this blog so it’s a little outdated since site visit happened 2 weeks ago, but you’ll probably still find it interesting if you think my life in Namibia is interesting…but now I’ll hopefully be much better about posting blogs because I have INTERNET on my COMPUTER!!! The way this works is that I bought a phone with internet which is how I’ve been checking my email (so write me some emails please!) and then I bought a Bluetooth USB port to connect Bluetooth on my phone to my laptop so I can use internet as much as I want! The only thing is that internet eats up my phone minutes. All of the cellphones here are pay as you go, so you buy a phone and a sim card, and then you buy minutes as you need them. SMSing (texting) is basically free, especially if you have the special MTC plan where if you send one sms a day the next 100 are free. So most PCVs just sms each other rather than calling, which is 2 dollars a minute. BUT internet is free from 1-5 am, so my strategy is to go to sleep at 10 or whatever (PC has made me lame) and wake up at 1 to upload blogs and send emails and try to download pictures. So I’ll be more sleep-deprived but better connected. I hope you appreciate and return the favor! Emails are always fun and brighten my day!
Last Saturday all of group 30 dispersed throughout the country to go for our permanent site visits. Before we left we were warned by more than one current volunteer that this week is the most challenging of our entire service. I can’t be sure that times won’t get more difficult in the coming 2 years (actually I’m positive that they will), but this week was definitely rough at times. We left Saturday morning, and Eastern Caprivi (where all of the Caprivi kids’ villages are) being as far away from Okahandja as you can get in Namibia, we left at 6 am to meet our supervisors in Rundu, who drove us the rest of the way. On the way from Rundu to Katima we had car trouble, which seems to be a running theme in all of my travels in Africa. So we had to stop at a filling station in Divundu for almost 2 hours, and then drive 60 k/hour with frequent stops to restart the car. The trip from Rundu to Katima took a good 8 or 9 hours, and the whole trip took almost 16. Eesh. Getting to Windhoek from site is not going to be easy. All of the Caprivi strip out to Kongola is national park though, so we saw plenty of animals on the side of the road, including an elephant which ran in front of our car, a herd of African buffalo and a hyena.
Since we got to Katima so late we ended up staying the night at Kaitlin, a current volunteer’s, house, and we went out for a very strange and awkward dinner at a lodge in Katima. The owner of the lodge, a very drunk, old Afrikaans man, who has what one might say a soft spot for female pcvs put aside food for us, which was nice of him, but then proceeded to sit down with us while we ate making offensive comments, and demanding that we go behind the bar to serve ourselves drinks. It was rather strange, but oh well.
On Sunday we hung out with Kaitlin and Ashley, another pcv who lives in Andrew’s village, Lusese, and waited for Andrew’s principal to drive us to our villages. I ended up getting to Kabbe at around 4 in the afternoon. Kabbe is about 50 kilometers from Katima, and it is definitely a very rural, traditional African village. There’s one brick house next to the school, where the principal lives, but everyone else lives in mud huts with thatch or corrugated iron roofs. My permanent house, or hut, I should say, which is still being constructed, will be right on school property, which is where most of the teachers stay. My homestay is a little further from the school, in another section of the village.
The first night was definitely awkward. I was exhausted, and a little shell-shocked at being dropped off in this village by myself and my host family was also a little confused as to what to do with this American. I’m the first volunteer at my site, so my community is not used to having a foreigner or a white person around. So I ate dinner with my family: buhobe (porridge) and fish, with miloho (green vegetables), which we ate sitting in our courtyard outside the house, on a mat, with our hands. Women have to eat while sitting on mats, and they also must wear shitenges while eating. Men are allowed to sit in chairs, and also must eat before the women, but there are no men in my family. After eating I took a bucket bath (the only means of showering in the village) and my host mom showed me where I was sleeping – which was in the main hut, in her room, in her bed even. Ummm, definitely not peace corps regulations. According to PC all volunteers have to have their own rooms. I didn’t really know how to handle the situation, and I was afraid of offending my host mom, who I was having some trouble communicating with, so I called my APCD and asked him if this was really what the program is. He said no, and asked to speak to my host mother, and managed to convey to her that I need to have my own room on the homestead. There’s another smaller hut in the courtyard, which was supposed to be my room, but I think the problem is that there was no bed to put in there, and no electricity, which there was in the main hut. I ended up staying the night in her room, and moving into my own hut the next morning. She even moved her bed into my hut, which made me feel pretty uncomfortable.
All right, so once that awkwardness was resolved, I started getting ready for bed, and realized I hadn’t seen a bathroom, and by bathroom I mean pit latrine, anywhere in the village. Uhh what? I smsed Kaitlin and said I had no pit latrine, and where do people go to the bathroom? She basically replied that people go, um, anywhere they feel like it, and my host mom confirmed this by telling me to just “pass water” in the bathing area. Uhh no thanks. I’ll wait for my pit latrine to be constructed…So basically I didn’t have an accessible bathroom all week (there is one at the school, which was a bit of a ways from my homestay and not convenient enough for me to use whenever I wanted. Not to mention my host mom was so worried about doing something wrong or me getting lost in my village, even though my village is super tiny and I can see the school from my courtyard, that she wouldn’t let me walk anywhere by myself). Also, to make matters worse I realized I left the water filter Kamwanga snagged from the Peace Corps office in Rundu in Steven’s car, so I had no way to filter water and I was pretty sure the water in Caprivi isn’t safe to drink. In any case I didn’t want to risk it not having a pit latrine and all. Not surprisingly not having water or a bathroom added some stress to my already stressful week. I have been assured by my APCD, the acting principal at the school and my counterparts that my pit latrine is under construction and will DEFINITELY be finished by October when I get to site permanently. Peace Corps also promised to give me a clean water filter, since the one I finally got from the back of Steven’s car was filthy and leaks. So I have high hopes for my site if they can manage to pull everything together. Apparently Caprivians are hard to motivate though, and they need lots of nagging to get stuff done.
So aside from not having a pit latrine or water, and thus teetering between peeing my pants all the time and passing out from dehydration, my site visit went smoothly enough. I managed to observe some classes, and my school is really the highlight of my site. It’s very new, with a Teacher Resource Center, brand new computer lab and some of the best teachers in the region. There is definitely room for improvement, which is where I come in, but I’m excited to start teaching and I’ve already thought of a few secondary projects to get started on (like a school library for one). And I think I’m really fortunate that the teachers and particularly women at the school have already made an effort to get to know me. Two of the young women teachers at my school even took me for a walk, and I absolutely love the school secretary. I’m glad I’ve started to bond with women, because the other female pcvs in my region said that was the most important but most difficult thing to do. Living with a host family also helps with that I think.
On Wednesday, my last full day at the village, my counterparts took me for a walk to introduce me to the community so they could see who I was and get used to a white person living in the village for 2 years, and also hopefully to prove that I exist so they finish building my permanent house and pit latrine. It was good to practice my Silozi, and most villagers were happy that I was trying, even though I definitely couldn’t understand anything beyond greetings. Also Subea is the native tongue in my village, and Silozi is taught in schools as a second language, so I’m going to have to learn some Subea. The Caprivi is still very traditional. When you greet someone who clap your hands twice, bend down to show respect, especially to older people, say the appropriate greeting for the time of day, shake hands Namibian style, then clap twice more. I also should have been wearing my traditional shitenge, which I’m going to have to wear whenever I’m in the village when I’m not at school. I’m going to get a very traditional African experience in Kabbe, which I’m really happy about. My site definitely has its challenges, hopefully some of which alleviated when my village is actually ready for me, but I know there will be many more. Even so, I think it’s going to be really great once I feel like I’m part of the community and I know a little more of the language. And I’m super excited for my permanent hut. I just hope they finish it in time…
On Thursday after school I went back to Katima to meet up with Andrew and Sarah and the other volunteers in Caprivi. As much as I think I’ll be really happy at my site it was still a relief to be away from it after this week, and to be back to accessible toilets and clean, drinkable water. A few of the volunteers took us out for amazing milkshakes in Katima, and then afterwards we went to our consolidation point, which is our meeting place in case something like political unrest or flooding happens and they have to consolidate all the Caprivi volunteers into one place. Our consolidation point happens to be a super beautiful lodge right on the Zambezi river, right across from Zambia, that has a pool! We bought beers and swam in the pool, which was amazing . Then we went back to Kaitlin’s house and made dinner that wasn’t buhobe and fish, and was super tasty.
On Friday we got a ride to Rundu, where we met up with Stewart and Alex, 2 pcvs from our group, and we also got to meet a bunch of current of volunteers staying in and near Rundu. We had a group dinner which was great. I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time in Rundu: Caprivi kids go to Rundu a lot for holidays and just to get out of Caprivi once in a while, since it’s our closest Namibian neighbor.
On Saturday we had to get back to Okahandja. Okay, so a word on transport in Namibia. Basically there are two ways to get around. One is to take combis, which are basically minibuses that go from one point to another, so they’re kind of like taxis or buses except that they won’t leave unless they’re full. So if you’re the first one into one you’re likely to wait for hours waiting for it to fill up with passengers before it will leave. And by full I don’t mean every seat is filled. Oh no, full means African full, like packed in so tightly that people are hanging out the windows. Combis will get you where you need to go, but they’re often dangerous because the driver is usually tired and maybe even drinking, and you’ll wait forever for it to leave and get you where you need to be.
The second way to get from point A to point B is to free hike. Free hiking is hitch-hiking, but it’s somewhat more reliable and organized in Namibia than in America. There are designated hike points to go to if you want a ride, and the way you signal for a ride is to raise your hand in the air and kind of wave it around. The higher your hand is the farther you’re going, and there are even hand signals cars will do back if they don’t feel like stopping, to signal that they’re only driving around town etc. Since there were 5 of us we decided to try our hands at free hiking. We got to the hike point in Rundu at around 7:30, but learned that this was kind of a lull time and we should have gotten out by 6 to get a ride straight to Okahandja. Since I’m a girl and cars are more likely to stop for me (sorry Beth McCoy and Alice Rutkowski, and any other women studies professors who might be reading this) I took full advantage of my little girl in need appeal to stand out front while the guys hid on the side of the road, and managed to get quite a few to pull over. Unfortunately car after car wasn’t going where we needed to go. Finally we got a guy going to Grootfontein to stop, so we got a ride to there, about 270 ks south of Rundu. From Groot we met up with another PCV who helped us flag down a car going to Otjiwarango, and from Otjiwarango we got a ride to Okahandja. So all together it took about 11 hours to get from Rundu to Okahandja, including our time waiting at hike points for rides. But it was definitely more fun than being crammed into a smelly combi!
So that’s my awesome site visit adventure! I think I’m going to like Peace Corps
ps. I tried posting pictures again but the connection is so slow and I'm almost out of free internet time. So I'll try again soon, I promise.
Last Saturday all of group 30 dispersed throughout the country to go for our permanent site visits. Before we left we were warned by more than one current volunteer that this week is the most challenging of our entire service. I can’t be sure that times won’t get more difficult in the coming 2 years (actually I’m positive that they will), but this week was definitely rough at times. We left Saturday morning, and Eastern Caprivi (where all of the Caprivi kids’ villages are) being as far away from Okahandja as you can get in Namibia, we left at 6 am to meet our supervisors in Rundu, who drove us the rest of the way. On the way from Rundu to Katima we had car trouble, which seems to be a running theme in all of my travels in Africa. So we had to stop at a filling station in Divundu for almost 2 hours, and then drive 60 k/hour with frequent stops to restart the car. The trip from Rundu to Katima took a good 8 or 9 hours, and the whole trip took almost 16. Eesh. Getting to Windhoek from site is not going to be easy. All of the Caprivi strip out to Kongola is national park though, so we saw plenty of animals on the side of the road, including an elephant which ran in front of our car, a herd of African buffalo and a hyena.
Since we got to Katima so late we ended up staying the night at Kaitlin, a current volunteer’s, house, and we went out for a very strange and awkward dinner at a lodge in Katima. The owner of the lodge, a very drunk, old Afrikaans man, who has what one might say a soft spot for female pcvs put aside food for us, which was nice of him, but then proceeded to sit down with us while we ate making offensive comments, and demanding that we go behind the bar to serve ourselves drinks. It was rather strange, but oh well.
On Sunday we hung out with Kaitlin and Ashley, another pcv who lives in Andrew’s village, Lusese, and waited for Andrew’s principal to drive us to our villages. I ended up getting to Kabbe at around 4 in the afternoon. Kabbe is about 50 kilometers from Katima, and it is definitely a very rural, traditional African village. There’s one brick house next to the school, where the principal lives, but everyone else lives in mud huts with thatch or corrugated iron roofs. My permanent house, or hut, I should say, which is still being constructed, will be right on school property, which is where most of the teachers stay. My homestay is a little further from the school, in another section of the village.
The first night was definitely awkward. I was exhausted, and a little shell-shocked at being dropped off in this village by myself and my host family was also a little confused as to what to do with this American. I’m the first volunteer at my site, so my community is not used to having a foreigner or a white person around. So I ate dinner with my family: buhobe (porridge) and fish, with miloho (green vegetables), which we ate sitting in our courtyard outside the house, on a mat, with our hands. Women have to eat while sitting on mats, and they also must wear shitenges while eating. Men are allowed to sit in chairs, and also must eat before the women, but there are no men in my family. After eating I took a bucket bath (the only means of showering in the village) and my host mom showed me where I was sleeping – which was in the main hut, in her room, in her bed even. Ummm, definitely not peace corps regulations. According to PC all volunteers have to have their own rooms. I didn’t really know how to handle the situation, and I was afraid of offending my host mom, who I was having some trouble communicating with, so I called my APCD and asked him if this was really what the program is. He said no, and asked to speak to my host mother, and managed to convey to her that I need to have my own room on the homestead. There’s another smaller hut in the courtyard, which was supposed to be my room, but I think the problem is that there was no bed to put in there, and no electricity, which there was in the main hut. I ended up staying the night in her room, and moving into my own hut the next morning. She even moved her bed into my hut, which made me feel pretty uncomfortable.
All right, so once that awkwardness was resolved, I started getting ready for bed, and realized I hadn’t seen a bathroom, and by bathroom I mean pit latrine, anywhere in the village. Uhh what? I smsed Kaitlin and said I had no pit latrine, and where do people go to the bathroom? She basically replied that people go, um, anywhere they feel like it, and my host mom confirmed this by telling me to just “pass water” in the bathing area. Uhh no thanks. I’ll wait for my pit latrine to be constructed…So basically I didn’t have an accessible bathroom all week (there is one at the school, which was a bit of a ways from my homestay and not convenient enough for me to use whenever I wanted. Not to mention my host mom was so worried about doing something wrong or me getting lost in my village, even though my village is super tiny and I can see the school from my courtyard, that she wouldn’t let me walk anywhere by myself). Also, to make matters worse I realized I left the water filter Kamwanga snagged from the Peace Corps office in Rundu in Steven’s car, so I had no way to filter water and I was pretty sure the water in Caprivi isn’t safe to drink. In any case I didn’t want to risk it not having a pit latrine and all. Not surprisingly not having water or a bathroom added some stress to my already stressful week. I have been assured by my APCD, the acting principal at the school and my counterparts that my pit latrine is under construction and will DEFINITELY be finished by October when I get to site permanently. Peace Corps also promised to give me a clean water filter, since the one I finally got from the back of Steven’s car was filthy and leaks. So I have high hopes for my site if they can manage to pull everything together. Apparently Caprivians are hard to motivate though, and they need lots of nagging to get stuff done.
So aside from not having a pit latrine or water, and thus teetering between peeing my pants all the time and passing out from dehydration, my site visit went smoothly enough. I managed to observe some classes, and my school is really the highlight of my site. It’s very new, with a Teacher Resource Center, brand new computer lab and some of the best teachers in the region. There is definitely room for improvement, which is where I come in, but I’m excited to start teaching and I’ve already thought of a few secondary projects to get started on (like a school library for one). And I think I’m really fortunate that the teachers and particularly women at the school have already made an effort to get to know me. Two of the young women teachers at my school even took me for a walk, and I absolutely love the school secretary. I’m glad I’ve started to bond with women, because the other female pcvs in my region said that was the most important but most difficult thing to do. Living with a host family also helps with that I think.
On Wednesday, my last full day at the village, my counterparts took me for a walk to introduce me to the community so they could see who I was and get used to a white person living in the village for 2 years, and also hopefully to prove that I exist so they finish building my permanent house and pit latrine. It was good to practice my Silozi, and most villagers were happy that I was trying, even though I definitely couldn’t understand anything beyond greetings. Also Subea is the native tongue in my village, and Silozi is taught in schools as a second language, so I’m going to have to learn some Subea. The Caprivi is still very traditional. When you greet someone who clap your hands twice, bend down to show respect, especially to older people, say the appropriate greeting for the time of day, shake hands Namibian style, then clap twice more. I also should have been wearing my traditional shitenge, which I’m going to have to wear whenever I’m in the village when I’m not at school. I’m going to get a very traditional African experience in Kabbe, which I’m really happy about. My site definitely has its challenges, hopefully some of which alleviated when my village is actually ready for me, but I know there will be many more. Even so, I think it’s going to be really great once I feel like I’m part of the community and I know a little more of the language. And I’m super excited for my permanent hut. I just hope they finish it in time…
On Thursday after school I went back to Katima to meet up with Andrew and Sarah and the other volunteers in Caprivi. As much as I think I’ll be really happy at my site it was still a relief to be away from it after this week, and to be back to accessible toilets and clean, drinkable water. A few of the volunteers took us out for amazing milkshakes in Katima, and then afterwards we went to our consolidation point, which is our meeting place in case something like political unrest or flooding happens and they have to consolidate all the Caprivi volunteers into one place. Our consolidation point happens to be a super beautiful lodge right on the Zambezi river, right across from Zambia, that has a pool! We bought beers and swam in the pool, which was amazing . Then we went back to Kaitlin’s house and made dinner that wasn’t buhobe and fish, and was super tasty.
On Friday we got a ride to Rundu, where we met up with Stewart and Alex, 2 pcvs from our group, and we also got to meet a bunch of current of volunteers staying in and near Rundu. We had a group dinner which was great. I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time in Rundu: Caprivi kids go to Rundu a lot for holidays and just to get out of Caprivi once in a while, since it’s our closest Namibian neighbor.
On Saturday we had to get back to Okahandja. Okay, so a word on transport in Namibia. Basically there are two ways to get around. One is to take combis, which are basically minibuses that go from one point to another, so they’re kind of like taxis or buses except that they won’t leave unless they’re full. So if you’re the first one into one you’re likely to wait for hours waiting for it to fill up with passengers before it will leave. And by full I don’t mean every seat is filled. Oh no, full means African full, like packed in so tightly that people are hanging out the windows. Combis will get you where you need to go, but they’re often dangerous because the driver is usually tired and maybe even drinking, and you’ll wait forever for it to leave and get you where you need to be.
The second way to get from point A to point B is to free hike. Free hiking is hitch-hiking, but it’s somewhat more reliable and organized in Namibia than in America. There are designated hike points to go to if you want a ride, and the way you signal for a ride is to raise your hand in the air and kind of wave it around. The higher your hand is the farther you’re going, and there are even hand signals cars will do back if they don’t feel like stopping, to signal that they’re only driving around town etc. Since there were 5 of us we decided to try our hands at free hiking. We got to the hike point in Rundu at around 7:30, but learned that this was kind of a lull time and we should have gotten out by 6 to get a ride straight to Okahandja. Since I’m a girl and cars are more likely to stop for me (sorry Beth McCoy and Alice Rutkowski, and any other women studies professors who might be reading this) I took full advantage of my little girl in need appeal to stand out front while the guys hid on the side of the road, and managed to get quite a few to pull over. Unfortunately car after car wasn’t going where we needed to go. Finally we got a guy going to Grootfontein to stop, so we got a ride to there, about 270 ks south of Rundu. From Groot we met up with another PCV who helped us flag down a car going to Otjiwarango, and from Otjiwarango we got a ride to Okahandja. So all together it took about 11 hours to get from Rundu to Okahandja, including our time waiting at hike points for rides. But it was definitely more fun than being crammed into a smelly combi!
So that’s my awesome site visit adventure! I think I’m going to like Peace Corps
ps. I tried posting pictures again but the connection is so slow and I'm almost out of free internet time. So I'll try again soon, I promise.
Monday, September 7, 2009
peace corps shmeace corps
I’ve been in Namibia for a little over 2 weeks now, and things are starting to settle down into a routine. Last week I moved in with a host family in town, and they’re great. I thought living with a host family was going to be one of the most awkward things about Peace Corps, but it’s really not so bad. I have a great Ima (mom) 4 sisters and a 3 year old nephew, and I get along with everyone really well. So my schedule for training is Monday through Friday awake by 6:15, training sessions from 8 to 5, dinner around 6 followed by quality Namibian TV, and in bed by 9:30. Wild and crazy adventures? Not yet. My life here is much more comfortable than I think most PCVs brace themselves for (hot running water, electricity, toilets, TV), but I guess I’ll live it up now since once I get to my permanent site up in the Caprivi I probably won’t have any of those amenities.
TV especially is one of the funniest things about Namibia. For one thing everyone in the country LOVES soap operas, which they call soapies, and the favorite one is called “Lorenzo’s Wife” which is a Spanish soap opera dubbed really poorly into English, and broadcast on network Namibian TV. It’s so random, but it’s great in a really terrible way. Right now my host family is watching Big Brother Africa, which is the big TV event. They have 14 contestants and one is Namibian. Tonight is the first episode and the lead in to the actual episode has been going on for 4 hours. Watching TV every night is probably not one of the things I was expecting to be doing when I joined peace corps.
This weekend we had a cultural celebration at the center, and each language group cooked traditional food over open fires, and trainers wore their traditional dress. We got there at 7 am to cook before it got too hot (it gets HOT by midday and it’s not even summer yet!) and each group cooked a few dishes. We got live chickens which we slaughtered (I didn’t participate in that part, being too close to vegetarianism) and we had goat heads galore. At the Silozi table we made 5 year vegetable which are kind of like collard greens, fresh river fish from the Zambezi, traditional porridge (pretty much every ethnic group in Namibia makes it: it’s ground maize meal, kind of like cream of wheat or polenta), roasted ground nuts, which were actually just peanuts, and sweet potato. We went down a line with our plates and got food piled on from each group and by the end I had a plate piled SO high with food I could barely eat a third of what I had. Some wondrous items that made it on my plate include goat stomach, lung and intestines, 3 different kinds of porridge, lots of beans…just a whole mess of food. I also tried traditional Herero sour milk which actually wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be. My favorites were the Silozi greens and fat cakes, which are basically fried sweet rolls…so good, but you can feel the grease sitting on your stomach after you eat one. I’m excited for my Caprivi diet: it’s much more fertile in that region than the rest of Namibia, so I’ll be able to keep a garden for fresh veggies. I’m also excited to start eating a little healthier, since I’ve found that Namibians are quite fond of mayonnaise and put it on everything.
Hmm, so, more about the training schedule. We start at 8, and we have singing and dancing for the first 15 or 20 minutes which is probably my favorite part of the day. After that we have language classes from 8:30 to 1. Uggh. I’m learning Silozi, which is not going so well. Trying to learn a language enough to become conversant in it in 2 months is definitely frustrating. We’ll see how much I know when I leave in October…hopefully I’ll be able to pick up a lot in my first few weeks at site. In the afternoons we have different sessions about health and safety and cultural integration so we can stay healthy and integrate into our sites during the next 2 years. Other than that I’ve just been getting to know the other trainees and training staff which has been a lot of fun. Everyone is great and it’s nice to have other people around to soak everything in with.
On Wednesday we find out our permanent sites. I’m one of the few that’s known what region I’m ending up in, because my language group is so small, but on Wednesday I’ll finally find out which village in Caprivi I’ll be headed to. We have it narrowed down to three, so it’s just a question of which of us are going to each village. My host mom told me today that she wants me to go to Bukalo because it’s closest to Katima Mulilo, the town in Caprivi, and I might have electricity and maybe even a brick house. My host fam is shocked that they’re sending me to a village, and I’m not sure they believe in my ability to handle village life. My host mom grew up in Mpalila, which is an island in the Zambezi that touches Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, but my sisters grew up in towns so never had to live in a village. It’s definitely going to be an adjustment at first to get used to carrying water and living in a mud hut and cooking on a fire but I think I’ll get used to it pretty quickly. A PCV in Caprivi came to our festival on Saturday and gave us some good advice about getting used to village life, such as to hang up fabric to keep worms from falling through the thatch roof in the rainy season and to be careful when running because I might startle an elephant and it’ll trample me (don’t worry about anything happening to me while running though…I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen in the next 2 years). I’m really excited to get to that part of the country though. I think it’s going to be awesome.
So all in all it’s been a pretty great 2 weeks and I’m really excited for the next two years! Exhausted, but excited. And hey, send me your address if you want postcards!
Mu siyale hande! Peace out.
Ps. So i have some really awesome pictures from our lunch the other day that I'm trying to upload but it's taking a reeeeally long time, so that might just have to wait. Sorry!
TV especially is one of the funniest things about Namibia. For one thing everyone in the country LOVES soap operas, which they call soapies, and the favorite one is called “Lorenzo’s Wife” which is a Spanish soap opera dubbed really poorly into English, and broadcast on network Namibian TV. It’s so random, but it’s great in a really terrible way. Right now my host family is watching Big Brother Africa, which is the big TV event. They have 14 contestants and one is Namibian. Tonight is the first episode and the lead in to the actual episode has been going on for 4 hours. Watching TV every night is probably not one of the things I was expecting to be doing when I joined peace corps.
This weekend we had a cultural celebration at the center, and each language group cooked traditional food over open fires, and trainers wore their traditional dress. We got there at 7 am to cook before it got too hot (it gets HOT by midday and it’s not even summer yet!) and each group cooked a few dishes. We got live chickens which we slaughtered (I didn’t participate in that part, being too close to vegetarianism) and we had goat heads galore. At the Silozi table we made 5 year vegetable which are kind of like collard greens, fresh river fish from the Zambezi, traditional porridge (pretty much every ethnic group in Namibia makes it: it’s ground maize meal, kind of like cream of wheat or polenta), roasted ground nuts, which were actually just peanuts, and sweet potato. We went down a line with our plates and got food piled on from each group and by the end I had a plate piled SO high with food I could barely eat a third of what I had. Some wondrous items that made it on my plate include goat stomach, lung and intestines, 3 different kinds of porridge, lots of beans…just a whole mess of food. I also tried traditional Herero sour milk which actually wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be. My favorites were the Silozi greens and fat cakes, which are basically fried sweet rolls…so good, but you can feel the grease sitting on your stomach after you eat one. I’m excited for my Caprivi diet: it’s much more fertile in that region than the rest of Namibia, so I’ll be able to keep a garden for fresh veggies. I’m also excited to start eating a little healthier, since I’ve found that Namibians are quite fond of mayonnaise and put it on everything.
Hmm, so, more about the training schedule. We start at 8, and we have singing and dancing for the first 15 or 20 minutes which is probably my favorite part of the day. After that we have language classes from 8:30 to 1. Uggh. I’m learning Silozi, which is not going so well. Trying to learn a language enough to become conversant in it in 2 months is definitely frustrating. We’ll see how much I know when I leave in October…hopefully I’ll be able to pick up a lot in my first few weeks at site. In the afternoons we have different sessions about health and safety and cultural integration so we can stay healthy and integrate into our sites during the next 2 years. Other than that I’ve just been getting to know the other trainees and training staff which has been a lot of fun. Everyone is great and it’s nice to have other people around to soak everything in with.
On Wednesday we find out our permanent sites. I’m one of the few that’s known what region I’m ending up in, because my language group is so small, but on Wednesday I’ll finally find out which village in Caprivi I’ll be headed to. We have it narrowed down to three, so it’s just a question of which of us are going to each village. My host mom told me today that she wants me to go to Bukalo because it’s closest to Katima Mulilo, the town in Caprivi, and I might have electricity and maybe even a brick house. My host fam is shocked that they’re sending me to a village, and I’m not sure they believe in my ability to handle village life. My host mom grew up in Mpalila, which is an island in the Zambezi that touches Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, but my sisters grew up in towns so never had to live in a village. It’s definitely going to be an adjustment at first to get used to carrying water and living in a mud hut and cooking on a fire but I think I’ll get used to it pretty quickly. A PCV in Caprivi came to our festival on Saturday and gave us some good advice about getting used to village life, such as to hang up fabric to keep worms from falling through the thatch roof in the rainy season and to be careful when running because I might startle an elephant and it’ll trample me (don’t worry about anything happening to me while running though…I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen in the next 2 years). I’m really excited to get to that part of the country though. I think it’s going to be awesome.
So all in all it’s been a pretty great 2 weeks and I’m really excited for the next two years! Exhausted, but excited. And hey, send me your address if you want postcards!
Mu siyale hande! Peace out.
Ps. So i have some really awesome pictures from our lunch the other day that I'm trying to upload but it's taking a reeeeally long time, so that might just have to wait. Sorry!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Caprivi Strip what!!!!!!!!
Greetings from Namibia!
(I apologize in advance for the disorganization and ramblingness of this post. My head is still spinning a little bit)
We’ve been at the training site since Friday, after a little bit of a hectic experience at the airport. Basically, we were supposed to take a 9:40 flight and some of us (the first 10 in the alphabet) got bumped to a later flight at 1:20. So my group arrived in Windhoek and the site 4 hours later than everyone else so we missed the original welcome song and dance which was a little disappointing. But, luckily we sing Namibian songs every morning, so it’s not too disappointing.
Right now we’re living in a hostel at our training site, and we’ve spent the last 3 days in preliminary training activities and lectures and our free time hanging out and getting to know each other. Even though it’s only been a week since staging in D.C. I can honestly say that every single person in Nam 30 is awesome. Everyone is so funny and open; it feels like being in college but being friends with every person in your freshman class. I can sit down and have a hilarious, honest conversation with anyone and find several things in common with each person. I kind of wish we could all keep living at the hostel during training, but on Friday we move in with host families in the area, in order to become integrated into the customs and culture of Namibia and to become immersed in our local language.
Tomorrow we start language training which is what I’m most excited about so far, partly because I’m extremely excited to start learning an African language, and also because this will be the first major indication of where in the country we’re going to be placed. PC/Namibia is changing the structure of the program this year in several ways. Firstly, in the past groups either went to the northern parts of Namibia, which is more homogenous and less westernized (i.e. less likely to have a western style house, electricity, running water, etc.) or the south, which is more diverse economically and in terms of race, and more “developed.” Since the last group of education volunteers went to the north, my group in the past would all be placed in the south, with maybe a few going to the Caprivi strip, which is the most rural you can get (the Caprivi strip is the little strip of land that goes between Botswana and Zambia along the Zambezi river). But, my group is being sent to all 13 regions, with a very wide range of accommodations. We have 18 English, 6 math teachers, 5 science teachers and 4 computer science teachers. Since there were so many English teachers our APCD read out the list of schools, what they were looking for, how big/small they are, how rural/urban the setting is, and what kind of accommodations we would receive. The other education sectors’ choices were mostly limited to urban or semi-urban areas, but for English teachers the choices were very diverse: some of them were schools in extremely rural areas where you live in a hut without electricity or running water, and some of them were in cities with internet at the school and full western style flats with electricity, shower, etc. Then, after hearing the choices we each wrote down 3 choices and then interviewed with our APCD about what we want, what our skills are etc.
So, I naturally picked the sites with huts, most likely no running water or electricity, and in the middle of nowhere (although hopefully only 20 ks from another PCV and the nearest town). I’m not sure if I’m going to get any of my choices but I’m pretty sure that would be awesome, although I’m not sure why. I would really be fine with anything, but I would rather be in a rural area where I would be forced to learn and use the local language and really challenge myself to adapt physically to my environment(although anywhere you’re placed in Namibia is a challenge and you have to adapt yourself in different ways.) I won’t find out what site I get until 2 weeks from now(!) but tomorrow at least I’ll know what language I’m learning so that will give me general idea of the region. We’re learning one of six languages: Oshindonga, Afrikaans, Silozi, Rukwangali, Otjiherero, and Khoekhoegowab (a click language spoken by the bushmen).
Sunday was my birthday, and I must say that I had a really amazing birthday thanks to my wonderful co-trainees. They even bought me a slice of cake from spar and sang happy birthday at dinner, and gave me wonderful Namibian gifts (such as meringue cookies and good pens from home. Which actually aren’t Namibian). The trainers sang me happy birthday in 3 different languages on Saturday too, thinking my birthday was that day, and then one of them sang to me in Oshiwambo at dinner on Sunday. I thought being away from home on my birthday might be hard, but actually it was fabulous. I love Namibia and I’m so happy to be here with all these great people. It feels like really cool summer camp. I guess we’ll see how it feels as training goes on…
Anyway, anyone at home who’s reading this…love ya! Miss ya! But probably not enough to ever come home…just kidding…
UPDATE
I found out what language I'm learning and it's Silozi, which means I'm going to the Caprivi strip, which is as rural as you can get! Basically I won't have electricity, running water and I'll be very very immersed in the culture. the culture is very different from the rest of namibia as well, and it's much greener and lush than the rest of namibia. There's also wildlife aka wild elephants roaming around and poisonous snakes which is kind of terrifying but oh well....
I'll update more later because for now I have to go. See ya!!
(I apologize in advance for the disorganization and ramblingness of this post. My head is still spinning a little bit)
We’ve been at the training site since Friday, after a little bit of a hectic experience at the airport. Basically, we were supposed to take a 9:40 flight and some of us (the first 10 in the alphabet) got bumped to a later flight at 1:20. So my group arrived in Windhoek and the site 4 hours later than everyone else so we missed the original welcome song and dance which was a little disappointing. But, luckily we sing Namibian songs every morning, so it’s not too disappointing.
Right now we’re living in a hostel at our training site, and we’ve spent the last 3 days in preliminary training activities and lectures and our free time hanging out and getting to know each other. Even though it’s only been a week since staging in D.C. I can honestly say that every single person in Nam 30 is awesome. Everyone is so funny and open; it feels like being in college but being friends with every person in your freshman class. I can sit down and have a hilarious, honest conversation with anyone and find several things in common with each person. I kind of wish we could all keep living at the hostel during training, but on Friday we move in with host families in the area, in order to become integrated into the customs and culture of Namibia and to become immersed in our local language.
Tomorrow we start language training which is what I’m most excited about so far, partly because I’m extremely excited to start learning an African language, and also because this will be the first major indication of where in the country we’re going to be placed. PC/Namibia is changing the structure of the program this year in several ways. Firstly, in the past groups either went to the northern parts of Namibia, which is more homogenous and less westernized (i.e. less likely to have a western style house, electricity, running water, etc.) or the south, which is more diverse economically and in terms of race, and more “developed.” Since the last group of education volunteers went to the north, my group in the past would all be placed in the south, with maybe a few going to the Caprivi strip, which is the most rural you can get (the Caprivi strip is the little strip of land that goes between Botswana and Zambia along the Zambezi river). But, my group is being sent to all 13 regions, with a very wide range of accommodations. We have 18 English, 6 math teachers, 5 science teachers and 4 computer science teachers. Since there were so many English teachers our APCD read out the list of schools, what they were looking for, how big/small they are, how rural/urban the setting is, and what kind of accommodations we would receive. The other education sectors’ choices were mostly limited to urban or semi-urban areas, but for English teachers the choices were very diverse: some of them were schools in extremely rural areas where you live in a hut without electricity or running water, and some of them were in cities with internet at the school and full western style flats with electricity, shower, etc. Then, after hearing the choices we each wrote down 3 choices and then interviewed with our APCD about what we want, what our skills are etc.
So, I naturally picked the sites with huts, most likely no running water or electricity, and in the middle of nowhere (although hopefully only 20 ks from another PCV and the nearest town). I’m not sure if I’m going to get any of my choices but I’m pretty sure that would be awesome, although I’m not sure why. I would really be fine with anything, but I would rather be in a rural area where I would be forced to learn and use the local language and really challenge myself to adapt physically to my environment(although anywhere you’re placed in Namibia is a challenge and you have to adapt yourself in different ways.) I won’t find out what site I get until 2 weeks from now(!) but tomorrow at least I’ll know what language I’m learning so that will give me general idea of the region. We’re learning one of six languages: Oshindonga, Afrikaans, Silozi, Rukwangali, Otjiherero, and Khoekhoegowab (a click language spoken by the bushmen).
Sunday was my birthday, and I must say that I had a really amazing birthday thanks to my wonderful co-trainees. They even bought me a slice of cake from spar and sang happy birthday at dinner, and gave me wonderful Namibian gifts (such as meringue cookies and good pens from home. Which actually aren’t Namibian). The trainers sang me happy birthday in 3 different languages on Saturday too, thinking my birthday was that day, and then one of them sang to me in Oshiwambo at dinner on Sunday. I thought being away from home on my birthday might be hard, but actually it was fabulous. I love Namibia and I’m so happy to be here with all these great people. It feels like really cool summer camp. I guess we’ll see how it feels as training goes on…
Anyway, anyone at home who’s reading this…love ya! Miss ya! But probably not enough to ever come home…just kidding…
UPDATE
I found out what language I'm learning and it's Silozi, which means I'm going to the Caprivi strip, which is as rural as you can get! Basically I won't have electricity, running water and I'll be very very immersed in the culture. the culture is very different from the rest of namibia as well, and it's much greener and lush than the rest of namibia. There's also wildlife aka wild elephants roaming around and poisonous snakes which is kind of terrifying but oh well....
I'll update more later because for now I have to go. See ya!!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
SA today, Namibia tomorrow!
Just a quick post to update since I'm almost out of internet time:
So far Peace Corps is awesome, Nam 30 is a group of 33 wonderful, funny, down to earth people...we possibly fulfill the peace corps stereotype but it's a good thing! We just got to Joburg today and arrive at Windhoek tomorrow afternoon! I can't wait to see what the training facilities are going to be like.
Ok, almost out of internet time, so I'll update when I can in Namibia!
So far Peace Corps is awesome, Nam 30 is a group of 33 wonderful, funny, down to earth people...we possibly fulfill the peace corps stereotype but it's a good thing! We just got to Joburg today and arrive at Windhoek tomorrow afternoon! I can't wait to see what the training facilities are going to be like.
Ok, almost out of internet time, so I'll update when I can in Namibia!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Remember that I love you
My flight to staging is in about 8 hours, my bags are packed (even though at this point I don't even remember what's in them anymore) and I'm going to enjoy my last few hours unwinding with Brian and a gin and tonic. I'm going through moments of panic and calm, mostly because it doesn't really feel like I'm leaving tomorrow. Most of the panicked moments come with trying to shove a few more things into my bags, which are just about 80 lbs (maybe a couple pounds over, but I'm hoping it won't matter too much...)
So anyway, the next time you hear from me I'll probably be in Namibia, but if I get a chance to post while still in the states I might. Folks from home, please send me your address so I can send postcards and letters. I'll miss you all, and I love everyone in my life so much. Leaving is so hard, but I wouldn't be able to if I didn't have the support of all my friends and family.
You'll be hearing from me soon. But for now, peace out.
So anyway, the next time you hear from me I'll probably be in Namibia, but if I get a chance to post while still in the states I might. Folks from home, please send me your address so I can send postcards and letters. I'll miss you all, and I love everyone in my life so much. Leaving is so hard, but I wouldn't be able to if I didn't have the support of all my friends and family.
You'll be hearing from me soon. But for now, peace out.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Staging updates and travel tips
Hey all,
I booked my flight to staging yesterday and now it really feels like it’s happening! Ahh commence nervous breakdown. No, just kidding. Actually I feel surprisingly calm and less freaked out than I thought I would. I still have 4 weeks for it all to set in though. I think at this point it’s Peace Corps or bust though, I’ve been talking about doing this for so long and been delayed enough. Nam or die!!
So, here are the details: I fly out of Burlington, VT at 7:17 am on Tuesday, August 18th, and arrive in Washington D.C., after a stopover in Philly, at 10:49. Staging is basically a one day intensive orientation where we become official PC trainees. Schedule for training looks like this:
August 18th
1:30: Registration, hand in 5039594 pages of paperwork I have to fill out beforehand (so far all Peace Corps activities have consisted of filling out paperwork. I might be in for a boring 2 years).
3-7: Meetings and info sessions, covering Peace Corps mission and background, anxieties and aspirations for service, risk management and reflection on commitment to service.
August 19th:
8:00: Checkout of hotel.
8:30: Go to clinic for vaccinations (not actually sure what shots I need for Namibia. I do think I have to take malaria pills for 2 years. I’m not sure what the side effects are for taking malaria pills for 2 years straight aside from the regular side effects of nightmares, sexy dreams and nausea/lightheadedness. While taking meflium 2 years ago I fell down the stairs at a hookah bar in Cape Town and then basically passed out on the street until my dear friends gave me a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. Side effect could also be due to not eating all day and smoking too much hookah).
5:40: Flight to Joburg takes off! The flight is 17 hours 40 minutes long. Yes, that is a very long flight. But I’ve already flown to Joburg twice, once when I studied abroad in ’07 and then when I went back after graduation in summer ’08. Actually this time it’s not so bad because we spend the night in Joburg and then fly to Windhoek the next day, as opposed to the last 2 times when we landed and I had to catch connecting flights, either to Cape Town or Port Elizabeth. Or my flight back to the US 2 years ago, when I had to do the whole thing in reverse with a wicked hangover. Try lugging 2 overweight suitcases, a laptop case and a ridiculously heavy backpack across half the world while trying not to puke up a R14 bottle of wine (approx 2 US$ aka NOT GOOD) and countless SA beers. Ha! This time I’m packing light.
Speaking of which they also included a packing advisory sheet which said not to bring more than 80 pounds, but I looked up the baggage limitations for US Air and it said 50 lbs per bag were allowed so I might risk it. Or not, since I have to lug those bags all over Africa (hopefully not hungover, but we’ll see).
I was told I need to have a going away party so it’s going to be August 7th in NYC, at an undetermined restaurant/bar. If you can make it, yay! If not, see you in 2 years. Or, better yet, come to Namibia. There are really cool sand dunes. And me! For the next 2 years at least…
I booked my flight to staging yesterday and now it really feels like it’s happening! Ahh commence nervous breakdown. No, just kidding. Actually I feel surprisingly calm and less freaked out than I thought I would. I still have 4 weeks for it all to set in though. I think at this point it’s Peace Corps or bust though, I’ve been talking about doing this for so long and been delayed enough. Nam or die!!
So, here are the details: I fly out of Burlington, VT at 7:17 am on Tuesday, August 18th, and arrive in Washington D.C., after a stopover in Philly, at 10:49. Staging is basically a one day intensive orientation where we become official PC trainees. Schedule for training looks like this:
August 18th
1:30: Registration, hand in 5039594 pages of paperwork I have to fill out beforehand (so far all Peace Corps activities have consisted of filling out paperwork. I might be in for a boring 2 years).
3-7: Meetings and info sessions, covering Peace Corps mission and background, anxieties and aspirations for service, risk management and reflection on commitment to service.
August 19th:
8:00: Checkout of hotel.
8:30: Go to clinic for vaccinations (not actually sure what shots I need for Namibia. I do think I have to take malaria pills for 2 years. I’m not sure what the side effects are for taking malaria pills for 2 years straight aside from the regular side effects of nightmares, sexy dreams and nausea/lightheadedness. While taking meflium 2 years ago I fell down the stairs at a hookah bar in Cape Town and then basically passed out on the street until my dear friends gave me a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. Side effect could also be due to not eating all day and smoking too much hookah).
5:40: Flight to Joburg takes off! The flight is 17 hours 40 minutes long. Yes, that is a very long flight. But I’ve already flown to Joburg twice, once when I studied abroad in ’07 and then when I went back after graduation in summer ’08. Actually this time it’s not so bad because we spend the night in Joburg and then fly to Windhoek the next day, as opposed to the last 2 times when we landed and I had to catch connecting flights, either to Cape Town or Port Elizabeth. Or my flight back to the US 2 years ago, when I had to do the whole thing in reverse with a wicked hangover. Try lugging 2 overweight suitcases, a laptop case and a ridiculously heavy backpack across half the world while trying not to puke up a R14 bottle of wine (approx 2 US$ aka NOT GOOD) and countless SA beers. Ha! This time I’m packing light.
Speaking of which they also included a packing advisory sheet which said not to bring more than 80 pounds, but I looked up the baggage limitations for US Air and it said 50 lbs per bag were allowed so I might risk it. Or not, since I have to lug those bags all over Africa (hopefully not hungover, but we’ll see).
I was told I need to have a going away party so it’s going to be August 7th in NYC, at an undetermined restaurant/bar. If you can make it, yay! If not, see you in 2 years. Or, better yet, come to Namibia. There are really cool sand dunes. And me! For the next 2 years at least…
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Packing List!
So, going against my very nature, I started the packing process for Namibia about a month ago. And by that I mean I typed up a packing list, bought a backpack and hiking boots at Campmor and haven’t had any time to think about packing since then. But now that I’m unemployed and my life has become infinitely more boring since I was coerced by my parents to spend the month of July in Vermont (hopefully with a week spent WWOOFing in Plattsburgh with Brian!) I’ll be getting into shopping and packing for my trip hardcore. So, without further ado, here is my rough packing list, as compiled from the advice given in the Namibia Welcome Book, stalking other volunteers’ blogs and advice from current volunteers in Namibia.
Packing List:
Clothes:
*Casual dresses for work: 2 or 3
Formal dress: 1
*Skirts for work: 2 or 3
*pants for work: 2
Jeans: 1
*Shorts/Capri to mid-knee: 2 or 3
*Blouses for work: 4 or 5
T-shirts: 4 or 5
Sweaters: 2 or 3
Fleece
Hat, scarf, gloves
Rain Coat
Casual sandals of good quality: 1
*Sandals, comfortable shoes for work: 1
Sneakers: 1
Hiking boots: 1
Flip Flops: (maybe)
Bathing suit and sarong
Pajamas
Sweatpants
Toiletries:
Sunscreen
Face/Body Lotion
Enough shampoo/conditioner, soap, toothpaste etc. for 5 weeks
Tampons
Deoderant
Nail clippers
tweezers
Electronics:
*Laptop
*USB port
Ipod
*Ipod speakers
*digital camera
*shortwave radio
Miscellaneous:
Batteries (AA, rechargeable)
*Solar charger
Duct Tape
*Watch + spare watch
*Swiss army knife
*Flashlight, extra bulbs
US stamps
Envelopes
*2 water bottles
Stationary
Converter
Books!
Candle lantern
Dvds
Pictures
Gifts for my host family
Sleeping bag
Backpack
*Daypack
Games: Uno, travel sized games, playing cards
Seeds (for a garden)
*Full size flat sheets
(The starred items are those I still have to get)
If any past or present volunteers in Namibia come across this post and want to help a sister out by giving some pointers I would be much obliged.
Packing List:
Clothes:
*Casual dresses for work: 2 or 3
Formal dress: 1
*Skirts for work: 2 or 3
*pants for work: 2
Jeans: 1
*Shorts/Capri to mid-knee: 2 or 3
*Blouses for work: 4 or 5
T-shirts: 4 or 5
Sweaters: 2 or 3
Fleece
Hat, scarf, gloves
Rain Coat
Casual sandals of good quality: 1
*Sandals, comfortable shoes for work: 1
Sneakers: 1
Hiking boots: 1
Flip Flops: (maybe)
Bathing suit and sarong
Pajamas
Sweatpants
Toiletries:
Sunscreen
Face/Body Lotion
Enough shampoo/conditioner, soap, toothpaste etc. for 5 weeks
Tampons
Deoderant
Nail clippers
tweezers
Electronics:
*Laptop
*USB port
Ipod
*Ipod speakers
*digital camera
*shortwave radio
Miscellaneous:
Batteries (AA, rechargeable)
*Solar charger
Duct Tape
*Watch + spare watch
*Swiss army knife
*Flashlight, extra bulbs
US stamps
Envelopes
*2 water bottles
Stationary
Converter
Books!
Candle lantern
Dvds
Pictures
Gifts for my host family
Sleeping bag
Backpack
*Daypack
Games: Uno, travel sized games, playing cards
Seeds (for a garden)
*Full size flat sheets
(The starred items are those I still have to get)
If any past or present volunteers in Namibia come across this post and want to help a sister out by giving some pointers I would be much obliged.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Less than two months
Less than two months. In less than two months I’ll be living across an ocean. I’ll be a 30+ hour plane trip away from my family and friends, the support system I was born into and have cultivated in my nearly 23 year existence. I’ll be living in a country the name of which many can’t remember or pronounce, on a continent that for many has only shady or romanticized meanings. I’ll be living without most of the amenities that I consider necessities in my daily life in the US. I’ll be striking out completely on my own, with only 80 pounds of belongings strapped to my back, and I won’t be coming back for 2 years.
Am I nervous? Well, yes. I’m terrified, thanks for asking. Even though I’ve read the blogs, read the books, read the 8 trillion pages of paperwork that came with my invitation kit (well, most of those pages…) I still don’t really know what to expect. I don’t quite know what I’ve gotten myself into. I had a conversation recently with a friend who got a tattoo and then later that night had a moment of panic thinking “oh my god, I got a tattoo! Why did I do that!!!” I’d be lying if I told you that I never had moments in the past month since I got my invitation where all I could think to myself was “Holy s***, you joined the f***ing peace corps!! Why the f*** did you go and do that?????” (those of you who know me might be surprised that my inner monologue is such a potty mouth) I have nights where I lie awake paralyzed by anxieties about everything from packing to what my site is going to be like and in those moments it’s hard to wonder whether or not I’m making a huge mistake.
But then again, there are nights where I lie awake thinking about how excited I am to learn a new language, thinking about the traveling I’m going to be doing, thinking about everything I already love about Africa, the things that exasperate me but that I grew to love and appreciate in my time there. I think about how 2 years ago I stepped off the plane from Jo’burg at JFK and all I could think about was how badly I wanted to go back. I think about the people I’m going to help and the good I’m hopefully going to do. And in those moments, I wonder how I’m ever going to get everything done in 2 years, how, when the time comes, I’m ever going to be able to get back on the plane to take me away from Africa, to take me home.
And yes, I worry far too much, but that’s the way I am, it can’t be helped. So yes, I am nervous. But I’m also so excited and so so happy to have the opportunity to do this. And even despite those moments of doubt I feel sure of my decision that I’m doing the right thing, that I can handle this, that I will learn how to do this. When I tell people I joined the Peace Corps many folks tell me that I’m doing something extraordinary, something that they could never do. Well, I’m not extraordinary, not in the least. I’m maybe a little crazy but hey, you knew that already. I’m just pretty sure I’ll be able to take what Namibia throws at me just as I’ve been pretty good at taking life in stride in the past. And so, if you were wondering if I’m ready to go to Namibia the answer is yes. As soon as I figure out what in the world to pack.
Am I nervous? Well, yes. I’m terrified, thanks for asking. Even though I’ve read the blogs, read the books, read the 8 trillion pages of paperwork that came with my invitation kit (well, most of those pages…) I still don’t really know what to expect. I don’t quite know what I’ve gotten myself into. I had a conversation recently with a friend who got a tattoo and then later that night had a moment of panic thinking “oh my god, I got a tattoo! Why did I do that!!!” I’d be lying if I told you that I never had moments in the past month since I got my invitation where all I could think to myself was “Holy s***, you joined the f***ing peace corps!! Why the f*** did you go and do that?????” (those of you who know me might be surprised that my inner monologue is such a potty mouth) I have nights where I lie awake paralyzed by anxieties about everything from packing to what my site is going to be like and in those moments it’s hard to wonder whether or not I’m making a huge mistake.
But then again, there are nights where I lie awake thinking about how excited I am to learn a new language, thinking about the traveling I’m going to be doing, thinking about everything I already love about Africa, the things that exasperate me but that I grew to love and appreciate in my time there. I think about how 2 years ago I stepped off the plane from Jo’burg at JFK and all I could think about was how badly I wanted to go back. I think about the people I’m going to help and the good I’m hopefully going to do. And in those moments, I wonder how I’m ever going to get everything done in 2 years, how, when the time comes, I’m ever going to be able to get back on the plane to take me away from Africa, to take me home.
And yes, I worry far too much, but that’s the way I am, it can’t be helped. So yes, I am nervous. But I’m also so excited and so so happy to have the opportunity to do this. And even despite those moments of doubt I feel sure of my decision that I’m doing the right thing, that I can handle this, that I will learn how to do this. When I tell people I joined the Peace Corps many folks tell me that I’m doing something extraordinary, something that they could never do. Well, I’m not extraordinary, not in the least. I’m maybe a little crazy but hey, you knew that already. I’m just pretty sure I’ll be able to take what Namibia throws at me just as I’ve been pretty good at taking life in stride in the past. And so, if you were wondering if I’m ready to go to Namibia the answer is yes. As soon as I figure out what in the world to pack.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Back to Southern Africa I go!
Welp, it looks like I'm headed back to Southern Africa for my two-year stint with Peace Corps! I'm going to Namibia! I really was not expecting to be assigned there considering the nomination I got a year ago was to teach English in a French-speaking country in Sub-Saharan Africa. I leave for orientation August 19th and start in-country training August 21st -- two days before my 23rd birthday! During my eight week in country training I'll get language training, professional training, culture training and snake-killing training (I hope). Then I'll be assigned a village and a host family with whom I'll live for three months, and I get two weeks of teacher training in my school, then it's two years plunked down in a rural Namibian village.
I have three months to get ready and say goodbye to everyone I know, which I know are going to fly by, so if you want to see me before I leave make plans (I'll be at NYC Pride June 28th to start)! I also have to start packing and ahhhhh I have NO idea where to begin. Help help help!!!
So, yeah this blog is going to be where I update on my life and adventures while abroad so you can read and comment and not forget that I exist, thought I'd start it now so y'all could get an idea of the Peace Corps process from the relative beginning (I started the application over a year and a half ago now, and got my nomination June 11, 2008, so yeah, relative beginning).
Love love,
Ems
I have three months to get ready and say goodbye to everyone I know, which I know are going to fly by, so if you want to see me before I leave make plans (I'll be at NYC Pride June 28th to start)! I also have to start packing and ahhhhh I have NO idea where to begin. Help help help!!!
So, yeah this blog is going to be where I update on my life and adventures while abroad so you can read and comment and not forget that I exist, thought I'd start it now so y'all could get an idea of the Peace Corps process from the relative beginning (I started the application over a year and a half ago now, and got my nomination June 11, 2008, so yeah, relative beginning).
Love love,
Ems
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